3Recognizing a Need for Change
WESTERN UNION IS among the world's largest money transfer companies. But money transfer was not part of the company's original business. Samuel Morse sent the first telegram in 1844. A rush of entrepreneurs attempted to capitalize on the new communication technology. Western Union arose not long thereafter as the dominant telegraph company in the country. At its peak in 1929 the company sent 200 million telegrams. That business was entirely wiped out, however, by the internet. But Western Union branched off into other business over the years. One such business was money transfer, which continues strongly to this day.
Other companies have reinvented themselves from time to time. American Express started as a delivery service in 1850. The American Express credit card was not introduced until the 1950s. Today, it is a global credit card and travel services company.
Yet other companies failed to adopt to changing technology or consumer preferences. Polaroid, the camera and film company, reached its peak revenues in 1991. Ten years later it filed for bankruptcy. Some 80 million people used Blackberry at one point. Today, it's hardly a blip in the marketplace. Xerox failed to adapt to the digital world, instead believing that its copying machines would reign supreme. Yahoo focused on growing its media business rather than on its search engine. It even passed on an opportunity to buy Google and later to buy Facebook.
All of this begs the question of ...
Get Driving Results now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
